Discoveries
by SlythCat19
Summary: In the summer after 4th year, Harry Potter's entire life is turned upsidedown and insideout by a letter from an unexpected source.  Severitus attempt
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Not even my car. You will not get anything if you sue me.

Harry Potter brushed the sweat from his brow as he lugged the last box over to the attic opening. The Dursleys had him doing the summer purging of junk from the overheated space. It was the summer just after his fourth year and the weather people were predicting the hottest summer Surrey had seen in a hundred years. So naturally, Vernon and Petunia put their nephew to the tasks of removing all the detritus from the house. Harry didn't mind, it kept his mind from wandering to the graveyard and Voldemort. At night was a different story. It was a very rare night that didn't include Cedric's vacant, dead form or the snake-like, red eyes of Tom Riddle.

Currently, Harry had more important problems than Voldemort. Vernon wanted the attic cleaned by lunchtime and it was nearing eleven. He glanced back at the small pile still needed to be moved. If he rushed, he could move all of them in an hour. The boy just sighed and carried the box down to the backyard, where Petunia and Dudley were going through and sorting what to keep and what to toss.

As he climbed back up to the attic, Harry noticed a lone brown cube sitting in a corner Harry thought he'd already cleaned. Kneeling by the box, he noticed just one label, smeared, in unfamiliar handwriting. What was inside shocked Harry. Items belonging to his mother, Lily. There were some schoolbooks and letters and a photo album, with both Muggle and magical photos. Inside a black felt box was a gold band and a diamond ring, obviously a wedding set. Harry looked at them, befuddled. Why would his mother's wedding jewelry be in a cardboard box in his aunt's house? If she hadn't been buried with them, wouldn't Dumbledore or Sirius have held onto them for Harry? It was then Harry noticed something inscribed on the inside of the band.

_ SS & LE 6-12-79_

Now Harry was even more confused. The only person he knew that had those initials was his Potions professor, Severus Snape. And his mother, his common, Muggle-born mother, wouldn't have married Snape. Would she? Harry honestly didn't know. He had only known his mother for the first year of his life. Why hadn't anyone told him? Surely someone must have known about the marriage, if there actually really was one?

Harry decided to investigate the contents of the box further. Maybe there were more clues buried elsewhere. He opened the photo album. The first several pages were still photos of Lily, Petunia, and their parents. He quickly decided that his mom took more after her father and Aunt Petunia, the mother, if the photos were anything to go by. By the tenth page, the photos became magical, their subjects moving within and without of their frames. Most of the pictures contained Lily in group shots with the Marauders and some girls Harry didn't recognize.

And then Harry had the proof he didn't need. The last pages contained wedding photos of Lily and Severus, with James Potter standing beside Snape. And tucked in the back cover was a Muggle sonogram with a caption on the back.

_ Julian Antares Snape, conceived 7-13-79, miscarried 11-25-79_

The fifteen-year-old continued to stare at the only evidence that he almost had an older half-brother. He couldn't believe it. Not only had his mother married one of the most hideous men Harry had ever known, she almost had a child by him! But that brought up the question: what went wrong? For something obviously happened. Harry was the son of James, not Snape. How did Lily end up with James when she looked so happy at her first wedding?


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, here is the 2nd chapter. Thank you everyone for reviewing and sticking with me. I'm on a bit of a high right now from the Red Sox forcing a game six! Go Sox!

all my love,

Katie D.

* * *

Severus Snape detested summers more than any other season. The temperatures were inevitably too high, making wearing his favored blacks uncomfortable at best. Also, each summer invariably brought the grading of exams and essays, the bane of every teacher's existence. And what added insult to injury was just how horrible most students were with potions. The little twits simply could not follow a simple recipe.

Potter was one such student. He was exempt from final exams and still barely managed to pass Potions. Granted, the boy did have more on his mind, especially during and after that final task…. Which brought Snape back to another reason this particular summer was the worst he'd ever experienced: Voldemort.

Thanks to some tricky maneuvering by the Potions master, the Dark Lord was more convinced than ever of his loyalty. Severus continually made potions for the Death Eaters and attended meetings and revels, relaying what happened to the Order. All that, along with several minutes' worth of the Cruciatus just after the Third Task, ranking just behind Lucius Malfoy in the Dark Lord's favor. The only roadblock to Severus' climbing higher than Lucius was his lack of an heir. Lucius had Draco and all Severus had was the memory of a potential child.

He allowed himself to remember his late wife. Only Dumbledore and Remus Lupin had known of his and Lily's marriage and loss of their first child. He had never loved her more than when she whispered the news, half-terrified, half-excited. But she had miscarried a few months later, ending their dreams for a family.

Then the arguing started, both had stressful jobs that demanded long hours and the couple spent less and less time together. Tensions heightened until one night in the beginning of November, the words came out that neither could take back and Lily walked out. She married James Potter only a few weeks later. And that July, the littlest Potter made his early appearance.

Severus shrugged off his reminisces and examined the next essay in the pile.

Ah, miss Granger's paper. As always, more than he assigned. She was another brat that didn't follow simple directions. He asked for five feet, not double that amount with handwriting so small Snape needed a microscope just to read the essay. He really should give her no marks just for being a pretentious know-it-all Muggle-born with no true talent.

She reminded him of Potter the Elder, save for the fact that Potter had been a pureblood know-it-all with no true talent. Both paraded their intelligence, thinking everyone else beneath them.

Granger's insolence in her third year was proof enough. Severus had railed against giving the girl a Time-Turner. If, Merlin forbid, she had been in his house, he just would have told her to take fewer classes.

And later that year, when he had to fill in for the werewolf, she had that gall to contradict him. Her essay then was just as long and filled with useless, pointless information. She couldn't stick to one assigned topic. She had to elaborate, sometimes to the point of exhaustion.

The Potions master only sighed and gave the essay an Exceeds Expectations with a long note instructing her not to run on and placed it in the pile of graded essays.

Next, he came to Mr. Potter's last essay prior to the Last Task. He was eagerly anticipating marking nearly every wrong fact, as there should be with Potter's essays.

The smirk quickly morphed into a scowl. There was hardly anything wrong with the paper. The topic was well-researched and organized. To add insult to injury, the length was the exact six feet assigned. Nothing over nor under, with Potter's larger handwriting spacing out his lines almost too much. With even more reluctance than with Ms. Granger's paper, he marked Exceeds Expectations and continued on.

Just as evening was coming along on the 30th of July, a yellowed envelope magically appeared on Severus Snape's desk with handwriting the receiver was extremely familiar with.

_Severus Snape_

_Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

_The Dungeons_

_Please deliver on the 30th of July, 1995_

Severus opened the envelope carefully, as to not tear the slightly aged parchment.

_Beloved Severus, _

_What must you be thinking, my love? What has the last decade and a half done to you? Here I sit in Godric's Hollow, my son is sleeping in his cradle beside me and James is still at work. I should be happy, right? Perfect family, perfect life. When did I ever have that? You saw how Petunia harassed me, especially after that first year at Hogwarts. Every summer was the same until you and I married. Then I was truly happy. Married to the man I love, with a baby on the way. Yet that happiness wasn't to last. We lost Julian in September. I wrote a false date on the sonogram. _

_But there is where events vary from what you know. What you don't know is that I conceived in late October and gave birth at the end of the following July._

_Severus, he isn't James' son. Not biologically, at any rate. He is yours. I didn't know I was pregnant when I stormed out. You hated me then, I'm sure. What we said to each other in anger, that night. I was just so frustrated. We weren't seeing each other. You were constantly in your lab and I at the Ministry._

_I started talking to James at lunch, just after I lost Julian. He was so understanding. He told me of his missing older sister. I told him of my marriage and how strained things were between the two of us. He offered me shelter should I ever need it._

_We forged a wedding and marriage license. Then I learned I was pregnant and I knew it was yours. James and I never slept together. We began looking for a way to disguise the baby, as almost nobody knew about my first marriage. People would wonder why my child resembled a known Death Eater._

_We used a potion that required James' blood. The potion lasts fifteen years and is extremely painful if not given the antidote. It was a variation of the Polyjuice. The antidote can be found in the same book. Despite the complexities of the ingredients, the antidote only takes two hours to brew_. _The antidote needs to be given after one o'clock in the afternoon on Harry's birthday._

_Our son's real birth certificate is filed under disguise. As soon as the potion wears off, the certificate will change, as will all school records. Harry James Potter will cease to exist. Damon Severus Julius Snape will emerge. _

_I sincerely hope this letter won't be necessary and I am able to tell you in person of all this. I want to live to see our son grow up. Yet I fear I won't. Dumbledore informed us of the prophecy that could concern our son. He wants us to use a Secret-Keeper and go into hiding. Anything to keep my son alive. _

_Severus, please! Find our son and raise him! He deserves to know how great a man his father his. I hold nothing against you. I never stopped loving you, no matter what I did._

_I love you forever,_

_Lily_

Oh, shit, Severus thought as the letter fluttered to the floor.


	3. Chapter 3

_Sorry about the really long wait. My Word malfunctioned and I had to save up to buy a new version of Office. With school ending for the summer, theoretically I should have more writing time._

_Thank you all,_

_Katie Davidson_

My beaming boy,

_This letter is scheduled to reach you just in time for your fifteenth birthday. Currently, you have just finished celebrating your first birthday and Lily is attempting, in vain I fear, to remove the icing you decided to plant your face into. While it was quite an amusing sight, there are better ways to eat cake, namely with your hands. Silverware is for wimps. Always remember that. _

_The reasons for this letter are varied. The first is for me to reach across the decade and a half to teach you something, if for some reason or other; I am not with you personally to teach you. _

_The next reason is to inform you that I, James Samuel Potter, am not your biological father. I am your father in all other ways that matter. I bathe you, I change your diapers, I soothe you, and I love you. Those things make a father, not some strands of DNA. Family is more than the blood bonds. Take Sirius' family for example, all dark and hateful, the lot of them. Yet he is closer and dearer to me than any blood brother could be._

_Right, getting back to the biology. Lily and I are not even legally married. She is still married to her first husband, your bio-dad. They wed shortly after we all left school but had some sort of row and your mother came running to me. We had been friends of a sort, after all, and she didn't know who to trust. She was three months pregnant with you at the time. She never had a chance to tell her husband before they fought. _

_We came up with a plan in order to hide her condition. As she didn't want a divorce from her current husband, I just forged a marriage certificate for Lily and me. Months later, we charmed her newborn son so he would resemble me instead of his biological father. _

_Your birth certificate is a fake. Your real one is in my Gringotts vault, along with Lily's genuine marriage certificate and her wedding set. Your name really is not Harry Potter. _

_I know this is quite much to take in, especially if both myself and Lily are deceased and all you have is this letter. Not many people were aware of Lily's marriage. Only Lily, her husband, myself later on, and Albus Dumbledore knew._

_We bonded over loss, she lost a child and I lost a sister. Jenna was two years older than me. She disappeared just a few months before you were born. If nobody talked about her, I'm not surprised. She was the first Potter in a thousand years to make Slytherin. My father was furious, to say the least. He disowned her just after the Sorting. She lived with relatives since. But she loved me and kept in touch. She was dating a foreigner, Macsen Gaunt, when she vanished. Most of her clothes were gone, as well as several personal mementos. She left voluntarily, I know that._

_I need to keep on track. Lily wanted your real name to have both parts of her husband, as well as something from the child she lost so we came up with Damon Severus Julius Snape. Damon actually came from my family, an eccentric uncle I loved growing up._

_Lily's first husband was a man named Severus Snape. He was a Slytherin my friends and I completely despised but Lily knew her entire life and became closer to while at school._

_We knew, as the pregnancy progressed, that any features inherited by you from Snape needed to be disguised. I came across a variant of the Polyjuice Potion that lasted fifteen years to the day. Lily and I figured the potion was perfect. We'd be around to assist you with the antidote and any questions you have. _

_When the potion wears off, it is extremely painful, sometimes lethal, if the antidote isn't administered within twelve hours of the initial onset. The initial onset will be at one o'clock on your fifteenth birthday. _

_Lily is writing a companion letter to Severus, explaining everything. Snivellus (sorry Lily, Severus) should be giving you the antidote if he cares at all for Lily or her son. I have very little faith in his care so I am attaching the recipe for the antidote for you to make and this letter will be arriving a few days' before your birthday. If you inherited any of his potions talent, you should have no problem with the antidote._

_Just remember not to take the antidote until after 1PM or else it won't work. Once the concealing potion wears off, all documentation will alter your name from Harry Potter to Damon Snape. Harry Potter will no longer exist. And no, you will not be able to remake the concealing potion as it requires my blood to work and, should this letter be necessary, my blood will not be available to you._

_Okay, enough with all the shop talk. What kind of man have you become? Are you in Gryffindor like Lily and me? Who are your friends? Do you fly as well as I do? Do you play Quidditch? Now I imagine I will be there to know the answers to these questions but if I'm not, then I'll never know._

_Be nice to Padfoot and Moony but don't believe really much of what Padfoot tells you. He is a born prankster that has yet to grow up. Believe a lot of what Moony tells you, because he is wiser and smarter than I will ever be yet he is fragile and needs all the friends he can find. Never mind the wolf he becomes once a month. The wolf is NOT Remus! The wolf is an animal that cannot be controlled. Remus is the best friend I could ask for._

_Now that is all the fatherly advice I can give at the moment._

_I love you, Harry, always remember that._

_Your forever father,_

_James Samuel Potter_

_(Prongs)_


End file.
